Thanks for the feedback - it's ...
It looks like the artifact spellbooks are less hassle for priests than for magi - try a mage and let us know what you think about having to get the first one off Kavlax!

I just finished off Kavlax with a mage. Did not feel up to the fight until quite a lot of playing and being pLvl 38. Too few hp and weak kit before now. Never played mage much before so I can't say if this is slow, very slow or normal. The fight was on dLvl 51 which is a bit later than I'd expected. Also I had hovered for a while around dlvl 35 but did not advance much so I quit that after a while.

Did not have much problems at all with Kavlax. Good supply of !rHeat, !rCold and !CCW and also, I had digged out a long straight corridor far from any room so that phase door would keep me in sight with Kavlax. Did not want melee. Only one scare when haste self timed out and being at speed 0. Surivived that though. Only attack I used was magic missile.

Before Kavlax I did not have too much problems. I did get to below 10 hp 2-3 times though and once I got drained from pLvl 17 to 1! Almost had to change my pants . Did not find !restore_life so I had to go back to dLvl 1 and hunt with less than 10 hp once again. Fun but scary. Never understood what got me, some invisible ghost i guess. ?Teleported away and then recalled immediately.